1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a biometrics signal input device, a computer system with the biometrics signal input device, and a control method thereof. The invention also correlates to the commonly assigned patent: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/229,645 (US20060064577A1), filed on Sep. 20, 2005 and entitled “BIOS LOCKING DEVICE, COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH A BIOS LOCKING DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF”.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional method for protecting the personal data is often made by way of password protection. However, using the password to protect the personal data is troublesome because the user tends to forget the password and the password may also be dangerously cracked.
Thus, adding a biometrics authentication device to replace the password input has become an important technology development. The fingerprint authentication device is used most frequently because the fingerprint recognition method is well developed.
Conventionally, the major problem of integrating the fingerprint authentication device with the computer BIOS for the purpose of Pre-Boot-Authentication (PBA) is limited by the specification of the commercial BIOS architecture. For example, the capacity limitation of the ROM chip (storing BIOS code) of the computer is insufficient for extra codes of fingerprint matching program (at least 100 Kbytes), and the fingerprint template file. Thus, it is very difficult to store the fingerprint matching program in the ROM chip according to the commercial specification of the current computer.
Alternatively, it is possible to increase the capacity of the ROM chip for storing BIOS codes so that the fingerprint matching program and application program can be stored therein. However, the storage of the fingerprint template data has become a big problem because the user may need to update the fingerprint template data. If the fingerprint template data is to be stored in the ROM chip for storing the BIOS codes, it is impossible to satisfy the requirement of updating the data by the user himself or herself.
It is possible to provide a stand-alone module of fingerprint authentication device, which captures and matches the fingerprint in this module, to solve this problem, wherein the BIOS ROM chip does not store the fingerprint matching program and fingerprint template data. However, such a stand-alone module has a high cost. For example, there is an advanced microprocessor, such as the 32-bit RISC processor or the DSP chip inside to perform the image processing and matching of the fingerprint data, and the total cost of the advanced microprocessor, the fingerprint sensor and related flash memory and the random access memory (RAM) is very high. Thus, the stand-alone fingerprint module is very expensive and cannot be easily popularized in the PBA of the computer system.
In order to solve the problem of high cost, US20060064577A1 patent discloses a BIOS locking device having a memory for storing software (including biometrics matching and application programs) and fingerprint template data, a USB controller and a biometrics sensor (e.g., a fingerprint sensor), wherein the BIOS ROM chip of the computer regards this device as an booting disk, such as “A:” disk, and enables the fingerprint application program to finish the fingerprint authentication procedure. This method, which is completely different from the prior art, uses the stand-alone fingerprint module for controlling the PBA of the computer with a very low cost, and may be easily popularized.
To extend the US20060064577A1 patent spirit, this invention provides a biometrics signal input device capable of diversifying the locking control of the booting procedure more effectively, a computer system having the biometrics signal input device ad a control method thereof.